“Choose joy” mantra becomes online movement

Benjamin began having health problems around four years ago. She would randomly collapse, experience double vision and had changes to her voice. She visited several doctors over the years who gave her different explanations, from allergies to arthritis, but things took a turn for the worse in February 2020.

At that time, she began rapidly losing weight and had difficulty performing many basic tasks. These symptoms escalated during September, when Benjamin could not walk or talk. This culminated in a 21-day hospital stay.

“I remember my daughter saying to me, ‘Mom, I feel like one doctor’s going to come in and that doctor is going to look at you and know exactly what this is.’ And that’s exactly what happened,” Benjamin said.

During her hospital stay, the doctor performed a variety of tests and consulted with other specialists until she was finally diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a rare autoimmune disease.

Benjamin said for as long as she can remember, her main philosophy has been to “choose joy.” This mindset has guided her through her life, including the founding of her non-profit organization Women Who Care, where she helps people find their purpose in life. She said this mindset has particularly helped her during her hardest moments in the past year and even now when having a rough day.

“I had to focus on the joy, and I had to focus on something that makes me smile,” she said. “For me, joy is the one emotion where we have a choice. You don’t always choose your happiness or sadness, but joy is one where you can look around and find something that will inspire you, or even in the moment, make you feel better.”

Benjamin said the phrase “Choose Joy” has been on display on the marquee outside the Women Who Care building for years, but she wanted to spread the message further. During her illness, she started using the phrase in Facebook posts and said that the idea resonated with people.

“It kind of became this movement,” Benjamin said. “So I started hearing from people saying, ‘I’m going through this, but today I’m choosing joy and choosing to find joy in the situation.’”

Aside from the value of joy, Benjamin said that the ordeal also taught her the importance of not giving up and continuing to advocate for oneself and one’s health.

“My husband every day would come home and he would say, ‘OK, I found another doctor. We have an appointment tomorrow,’” She said. “And when you’re in that place you just don’t want to do anything because you know that the answer that you’re going to get is the answer that you got weeks before and it gets hard.”

Looking to the future, Benjamin wants to focus on expanding her non-profit into more rural areas in Alabama so that she can help more people choose joy.

“It has been a journey, but in that process it has shown me that I had more strength than I thought I did,” Benjamin said.